Everybody Loves Caleb
by strayphoenix
Summary: What do you get when you throw five Calebs from different universes, including the comics and TV series, on a team to fight an insane super powered Caleb in another universe? Adventure and craziness of course. UP NEXT Everybody Loves Caleb: Adventures
1. And Then There Were Five

_**Everybody Loves Caleb**_

Summary: What do you get when you throw five Calebs from different universes, including the comics and TV series, on a team to fight an insane super powered Caleb in another universe? Adventure and craziness of course.

"This is weird" Caleb muttered to himself as he walked into the room in Candracar. The room was white like the rest of Candracar was and there was nothing but a table in it. Around it there were two other figures. Him and him.

"Hey" one of them greeted, "I'm Caleb" He was wearing his rebel outfit: brown pants, black shirt and long brown coat. He had what looked like a large watch on one wrist.

"Um, yeah, me too" the other said, with a shyer wave. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, jeans and sneakers.

The Caleb that just came through the door turned around worriedly to see that there was no door anymore. He was donning his rebel outfit as well, sans coat.

"First universe hop?" the first Caleb asked him, indicating to an unoccupied chair. The third one nodded as he sat down cautiously next to the second Caleb.

The first Caleb crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back explaining cooly, "This would be my thirty-something so I basically know the lowdown on these things. I'll walk you through it"

"Thirty something?" the second Caleb asked, "When I asked you said twenty something!"

"Did I?" he asked, casually leaning further back in his chair. "Lets see…" he started counting off. "there was Avatar, Phantom of the Opera, Naruto, X-Men, Buffy…"

The second Caleb shook his head in disbelief, and turned to the third Caleb. "According to superstar here, basically there's supposedly a big problem in another universe that only 'Caleb' can solve. However, it's so big that there have to be more than one of us. Understand?"

"Um, sort of" the third Caleb said. The second one laughed, "My thoughts exactly"

"Hey, Superstar" the third Caleb addressed the first teasingly. He stopped counting.

"Wazzup?"

"What are we waiting here for?" he asked.

"The others, of course" he said matter-of-factly. The second and third Calebs looked at each other, more confused than before. Superstar rolled his eyes.

"Something this huge is going to take more than three of us, _obviously_" he clarified in an annoyed voice.

"Oh, so how many are we waiting for then?" the second Caleb asked.

"Dunno, Stripes, maybe one or two more" Superstar said as the second's hands darted to the green stripes on his cheeks.

"I was about two seconds away from asking what those tattoos meant" the third Caleb stated, inspecting the second's face. He pulled away.

"They're not tattoos. They're what are left from when I converted from being a Murmurer"

"A what now?" the other two asked.

Stripes shook his head, "A Murmurer? Magically transformed flowers? Mindless servants of Phobos?"

What he got were two _I have no idea what he's talking about_ sideways glances.

"Nevermind" he grumbled.

"We have Whisperers in the universe I come from" Caleb number three said. "But they're very tiny and they live in roses"

"Hey, my universe too!" Superstar exclaimed, leaning towards the third Caleb. "Our universes aren't so unalike. Say, who you dating, C3?"

"Um, yeah, the nicknames gotta stop" C3 said, not enjoying what he had been dubbed. Stripes snickered.

"What am I supposed to call you all? Caleb?"

"Well…point. Um, I'm dating Cornelia"

He got a raised eyebrow from Superstar. "Really? Weird"

"Well me too" Stripes chimed, "At least I was until a while ago. I'm kinda seeing Elyon now"

Superstar snorted. "That's just too funny"

Now the raised eyebrow came from C3. "Why?"

"Well in my home universe they're dating _each other_"

Stripes' gagged and C3's eyebrows looked about to shoot off his face. "Good grief" was all he said though.

Now laughing, Superstar went on. "Yeah, they're both out in the open now. Interesting to watch…anyway, I'm personally dating Will"

"Will?" C3 asked.

"Oh, like you've never looked at her ass in Guardian form" he retorted.

"Who's dating Matt then?" C3 went on, hoping his cheeks weren't as hot as they felt.

"My sister"

"You…he…we…ugh, Superstar's got a sister?" Stripes asked after utterly confusing himself.

"In my home universe I have several. In some others I've been to, I have an evil twin but mostly I have sisters. In one I was actually a Siamese twin with Phobos"

"Well I have no family" Stripes commented after throwing out a very disturbing mental image. "Being a flower and all"

"I think I win the prize for dysfunctional family of the year" C3 groaned laying his head in his arms on top of the table. "I'm an only child but my mother is Nerissa"

Superstar nodded knowingly not looking that surprised. "Join the club. We'll make T-Shirts"

"Nerissa?" Stripes choked. "That _phrelic_tortured me to within an inch of my life!"

"Language" Superstar said idly. C3, who had no idea what a _phrelic_ was, continued on. "She hasn't really fought me or anything but it's still pretty freaky if you ask me"

Suddenly, another deeper voice spoke up. "Twenty bucks I've seen freakier"

Stripes and C3 were surprised at the sudden appearance of a fourth Caleb but Superstar seemed un-phased.

The fourth Caleb was leaning back on his chair so that his feet were on the table and he looked as cool and relaxed as if he were at the beach. He had dark jet black hair that hit just about his shoulders and dark purple eyes. His rebel outfit was all in black.

"I take that bet and raise you ten" Superstar responded mischievously, pulling out a wallet from seemingly thin air.

"You're on," he said, taking money out of his own wallet. Stripes and C3 looked at the new Caleb with some dissatisfaction.

"And who might you be?" C3 asked.

"More presently," Stripes hissed with a suspicious glare, "_what_ might you be?"

New Caleb found his thirty dollars while addressing the pair. "Not the smartest fish in the sea, huh? Name's Caleb, Einsteins. Since you didn't already catch the tall, dark and bad ass vibe, I'm a vamp"

"Vamp?" Stripes asked, eyes wide, "As in Vamp-ire?"

The vampire looked at Stripes with a raised eyebrow and then back at Superstar who was still going through his wallet looking for money. "Where'd you pick up Brain Dead 1 and Brain Dead 2?"

"I didn't pick up anything, Vamp" he responded, "For your fourth hop, you seem to have forgotten that Candracar picks the players not me"

At that precise moment, a being from Candracar appeared in the center of the table, almost like a hologram. "Greetings Calebs"

"Fah!" C3 exclaimed, jumping back and almost falling out of his chair. Vamp rolled his eyes and Superstar made his wallet disappear with a flick of his wrist before the being could turn to him. Stripes was still staring at Vamp through the projection.

"Hey, Tadoo" Superstar addressed him with a playful smile, "About time you showed up"

Tadoo sighed and spoke with controlled calm. "Hello, Caleb. Have you all found a manner of telling each other apart?"

"Sure thing boss-man" he responded, which made Tadoo clench his teeth. He started pointing out Calebs pretending he didn't notice how much he annoyed Tadoo. "That's Stripes, C3, Vamp, and I'm going as Superstar which I found completely appropriate and very humbling"

"And your fifth?" the creature asked. All four Calebs looked puzzled. "Our fifth?" Superstar asked, "I thought you said—"

"Excuse me?" came a voice, "Is this the, quote un-quote, 'Caleb Convention'?"

Five heads turned to the sound of the voice and four sets of eyebrows shot up simultaneously. The Caleb standing there was wearing baggy beige cargo pants, a tight, brown long sleeved shirt, and had lower-back length brown hair.

And breasts.

"Well," Superstar said, the first to speak after blinking a couple of times, "this would be a first"

"Actually," Tadoo corrected, not missing a beat, "that would be your fifth. Please sit down, Ms. Caleb"

The girl eyed the table and the boys distrustfully. "Do I have to?"

"We don't bite" Superstar said as a flirtatious glint came to his eyes.

"Well, Vamp does…" Stripes commented, tearing his gaze from the girl and back to Vamp. The group chose to ignore his comment as the girl sat down in the last unoccupied chair between Vamp and C3.

"I will inform the Oracle that you are all present" Tadoo informed Superstar.

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure" was his offhanded response. He was eyeing the new Ms. Caleb as she sat down. Tadoo vanished again with a '_what did I do to deserve this?'_ expression.

"So, um, Ms. Caleb" C3 began, after a cough "since you missed the explina—"

"Please," she cut him off mid word, "I go by Caylee" With another disdainful look around the table she continued with, "And I suppose that you're all inter-universal male counterparts of myself?"

"Actually," Superstar informed her as his lips curved in charming smile, "for thirty universe hops, you're the first She-Caleb I've seen. It appears _you're_ a female counterpart of _us_"

"Greeeaaat" she muttered, placing her chin in the palm of her hand, "So I'm stuck on another testosterone team"

"Oh, we're not as bad as we seem" Stripes tried to amend.

"Though Stripes seems convinced that some of us are" Vamp said in an icy cool voice with an even icier look at Stripes. Stripes took his attention of Caylee and glared right back.

"Excuse me," C3 asked, addressing her earlier statement, "_another_ testosterone team?"

"What? You don't have Guardians of the Veil in your universes?" Caylee said sarcastically.

"The Guardians are _boys_in your universe?"

"They're _girls_ in yours?" she responded her defensive exterior slightly giving away to equal curiosity.

C3 filled in, "Yeah: Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin"

"Huh" she said in contemplation, "Try William, Ivan, Tarno, Cory, and Han Lin"

"So everyone's gender in swapped?" C3 asked. Then he laughed, "That's freaking awesome!"

Caylee shrugged her shoulders. She gave the boys to her left a sideways glance and noticed that Vamp had broken out of his staring contest with Stripes. He and Superstar were staring in a different direction entirely.

She glared at them. "My eyes are up here"

Superstar looked away innocently. Vamp did the complete opposite. "Oh, I'm fully aware of that, sweety" he said with a devilish smile.

She leaned foreword towards him, matching his smile and spoke through her teeth. "Try anything, Vamp, and the stake won't be going through your _heart_"

Stripes raised his hand up in the air with a smile. "Anyone else like the new Caleb?"

Just then, another holographic image appeared in the middle of the table. This time, C3 managed not to jump but Vamp still threw him a smirk as he flinched. This time, it was an image of the Oracle addressing them.

"Greeting and good tidings to you all" he said formally.

The Calebs surprised each other by all inclining their heads at the same time and replying, "And as is due to you, Great Oracle"

Vamp and Caylee muttered their responses but were still amused at the timing of it all as were C3 and Stripes. Superstar merely smiled and shrugged in a _'you get used to it'_ fashion as he addressed the Oracle's projection.

"We're all present. Do you wish to proceed with the crisis stats?"

The Oracle nodded and Superstar stood up. The other Calebs watched as he seemingly rotated the ring of his watch in multiple directions like a safe's lock.

"Universe 56288" Superstar said aloud. Suddenly the white room seemed to fade away to what appeared to be a desolate Meridian landscape. The only thing that remained of the room was the table where the Calebs sat and the Oracle was transmitting from.

Suddenly from over head could be heard a battle cry as Will in Guardian form seemingly materialized along with the four other Guardians, Caleb and a very threatening Phobos.

"Do not worry, this is merely a memory," the Oracle explained upon seeing Stripes' face blanch at Taranee's fireball-filled hands approaching, "We are intangible to everything in here

"Now, for the crisis in this universe," the Oracle began as the battle raged around them, "In the normal order of things when a Guardian is lost, their soul moves on and their powers return to the Heart of Candracar"

A powerful shock blast made Irma fall from the sky and hit the ground with a sickening _thunk_.

Stripes' pyro-phobia was temporarily quenched as he turned around to glare at Superstar who had pulled a bowl of popcorn out of the air and was munching noisily. He shrugged off his fierce look and offered him some. Stripes sighed and turned back to the battle as Vamp grabbed some from Superstar's other side.

"There was a dilemma, however" the Oracle said gravely as the image now showed Irma's body dissolving from Hay Lin's arms. "The Veil of this universe had been so reinforced to keep Phobos inside, it kept everything and everyone locked inside as well. The Guardian souls had nowhere to go but return to the Heart with the elemental powers"

"But why was the Veil so reinforced?" C3 asked as a grief stricken Hay Lin was now hit with another burst of power. "In my universe, passage through the Veil was fairly easy with the Seal of Phobos"

"In this universe, Phobos had fully absorbed all of Elyon's powers as well as life force," the Oracle explained. "The Guardians knew we were going to fully strengthen the Veil once they crossed and agreed to do so anyway to take Phobos out once and for all"

Around them, the Guardians had been diminished to Will and Taranee alone. The Caleb belonging to the universe depicted in the images was cradling the dissolving body of Cornelia in a distance.

"If the Veil is so reinforced, how are we getting in?" C3 asked, eyeing the scene with a queasy feeling in his stomach.

"The Veil is a divider for dimensions, _not_ universes," Superstar said smugly.

They watched as Taranee picked up the Heart of Candracar from the ground as Will began to vanish. Only to have a blast hit her as her back was turned for one second. The Heart was left unguarded.

With another handful of popcorn en route to his mouth, Vamp asked. "So what happened after all the Guardians were gone?"

"What do you think happened?" the Oracle asked grimly as Phobos, dazzled by the fact that the Heart of Candracar was finally his, slowly and tentatively reached for the magical object.

Suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, the Caleb belonging to the images appeared and threw his arms foreword. Green magic shot out of them and knocked Phobos back long enough for that Caleb to reach the Heart first.

"Cornelia broke one of the greatest laws of Candracar by transferring her powers to Caleb," the Oracle explained as the Heart, recognizing Caleb as the last Guardian, gave him access to all five elemental powers which he used all at once to obliterate Phobos.

For reasons the others didn't understand, Stripes shuddered.

"And the power went to his head," the Oracle finished. When he dust around them settled, they saw Caleb standing on a crater in the middle of the landscape with his eyes glowing with power. He let out a short laugh and held up the Heart of Candracar to the sky which turned blinding white.

Suddenly, it was all gone and they were once again sitting in the white room in Candracar. Superstar shoved some more popcorn in his mouth and then made the bowl disappear. He then began to fish around the seemingly endless pockets in his coat for something as the Oracle resumed speaking.

"Your mission, Calebs, is to travel here and stop him in any way you can," he said shortly. Superstar finally found what he was looking for and pulled out four large, black-rimmed watches identical to the one he was wearing.

"These are Candracar Operated Reality Energizers also known as C.O.R.E.s," he explained as he began handing them out. "The only feature you guys need to be concerned about is the fact that they allow identical energy signatures to co-exist in the same universe outside of Candracar. In other words, we won't be sucked into each other upon skin contact because our bodies recognize each other as part of themselves. Unless you find that appealing, **DO NOT TAKE THESE OFF**."

After this explanation, the Calebs strapped on the watches as quickly as possible. The Oracle nodded approvingly.

"Very well, then. Good luck to you all."

And with a wave of his hand, the Calebs were elsewhere.

* * *

Been working on this for a few weeks and I like how it's coming so far. If it blows your mind, I'll be happy to explain. Here's a quick explanation on the Calebs:

Superstar: This Caleb is the only experienced universe hopper in the group (why will be revealed later) and he's the one who jumps from crazy fan-fiction plot (including cross-overs) to another which explains the non-canon pairings in his universe and the multiple sisters. It was funny at the time I thought of it anyway... :) He's dating Will and has an ego a few sizes to big for him.

Stripes: This Caleb is from the comics/books. Dumped Cornelia and kind of flirting with Elyon, he's a warrior but lacks the sharp wit of Superstar and Vamp, the latter which he seriously dislikes. He sees him as evil and can't understand Superstar's airtight trust of him. He also isn't as open-minded to accept the existance of multiple universes as C3 and Caylee were.

C3: This Caleb is from the TV series. His mother is Nerissa and he's human (and sisterless). Dating Cornelia in the terms of 'serving' her which the others find quite funny. Having dealt with the Guardians in the closest relationship, he's about ready for anything and just goes with the general flow of things. His history is most similar to Superstar's.

Vamp: This Caleb is basically Edward meets Angel. The origin of his vampirism is to be revealed in the next chapter as well as who he's dating. His original personality changed with the infection so he's haughty and sarcastic. He's friends with Superstar which he's done other universe-hops with and has a dislikes Stripes for not accepting him.

Caylee: This Caleb is from a universe where all the genders of the characters are switched therefore giving her male Guardians. As opposed to the original series, she lives in a male dominated world which has given her a hard protective shell around boys (for more reasons than one). She sees sexism as the ultimate form of insult seeing that she accomplished just as much as her Caleb counterparts in her universe. She is single.

The Plot wasborn out of the comics _The Exiles_ and a storyline in _Ultimate Spiderman_ titled 'The Clone Saga'. I, of course, made it all my own :)


	2. Plans for You and Me

I apologize ahead of time to anyone named 'Hector'. You have no idea how much fun it is to invent your own swear words :D

* * *

"My feet are killing me" C3 panted as he found himself climbing over yet another mountain of rubble. "Can't we break for six seconds? The apocalypse can wait six seconds right?"

"Suck it up, you sissy" Caylee snapped a little behind him. "I'm doing this in _heels_"

"Shut up, _both_ of you," Superstar reprimanded but his face showed an amused smile. "He's bound to notice us sooner or later but you two bickering will only speed it up"

"Of course because how hard could we be to find on an entire _planet_," Caylee commented, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, five moving figures on a desolate landscape shouldn't be _too_ hard to point out," C3 murmured more to himself as they reached the peak of the mound. He could now see the clouded and moonlit horizon scattered with lumps and piles of wreckage that could have been houses and shops. The only thing still standing was the palace.

"And why are we walking into this plan-less anyway?" Stripes added, slightly annoyed. "What are we going to do when this super-powered-alter-us does find us?"

"Vamp," Superstar said offhandedly as he began descending the pile, "_You're_ familiar with my style?"

"'Wait till someone hits you and then wing it'" Vamp supplied with a smirk.

"Exactly!" he responded cheerfully. C3 and Stripes gave each other nervous looks while Caylee voiced her disgust.

"I'm surprised you still have your ass in tact, honestly"

"I'm surprised it took you this long to check," Superstar smirked. Caylee groaned.

"I don't care if _your_ universe revolves around you but I actually have a desire to return to mine," C3 said as he took a break to lean against a solitary wall to adjust his boot.

"Since we've brought up the topic of multiple universes," Stripes began, stopping as well, "I was wondering something: How are there multiple Guardians of the Veil? Doesn't Candracar oversee all the universes?"

"No, Candracar oversees all the _dimensions_" Superstar corrected. He motioned for the others to stop as well and Caylee came to a stop with poor grace. "Dimensions and universes are two different things entirely."

"This should be good…" Vamp muttered still with his haughty smile, leaning up against C3's wall and crossing his arms.

"Dimension is just a fancy name for a world or group of worlds which are far apart from each other. By Candracar's terms anyway," Superstar explained. "A 'universe' is an alternate timeline that runs parallel to other universes. Kind of like the bread, ham and cheese of a sandwich. Speaking of food…"

Caylee cleared her throat suggestively before Superstar could go off on a tangent. "Sorry, so anyway, there are Guardians of the Veil in every _universe_ to oversee all the _dimensions_ of that universe"

"Is there a Candracar and Oracle for every universe?" Stripes asked earnestly.

"Not necessarily a _Candracar_ and an _Oracle _but a higher plane and a higher person that oversees but doesn't interfere," Superstar explained. The Calebs looked even more confused than before and Superstar rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"It hurts if you think too much about it," Superstar shrugged and began to walk again.

"Can we please have _something_ that even _slightly_ resembles a plan?" C3 asked, finishing with his boot but not making any motion to follow Superstar. "Even if it's just for the sake of my sanity?"

"'Sanity' doesn't exist in my vocabulary," Superstar said. He stopped walking, though, when he noticed that he was getting glares from all his teammates, none of which were moving. Even Vamp's look said _they kinda have a point_…

"_Fontana gerrlic,_ alright!" Superstar exclaimed, throwing his arms up. His eyes did a quick sweep of the landscape and stopped on a dilapidated building with an opening much like the mouth of a cave. "C'mon, we'll devise a plan!"

"And eat," Stripes added, following Superstar who began to walk in that direction, the others now eagerly following suite. "I'm starting to get really hungry"

"Me too," Vamp agreed cheerfully. Stripes' glare was pure venom.

"You come within a foot of me and I'll throw you out into the sunlight in your sleep"

"Won't work," Vamp replied simply. "Besides, I wouldn't come within a foot of you in the first place. I drink _blood_, Flower Child, not _pollen_"

C3 grabbed Stripes who had pivoted on his heel and was heading at Vamp at the same time that Caylee stepped in between the combatants.

"Save the 'Alpha Male' _gerrlic_ for a time when there's someone around who cares," Caylee snapped, looking at Vamp who was looking amused.

"Since when are you in charge?" he asked her, lightly.

"Since I realized that I can probably kick all your asses," she replied without a hint of sarcasm as she turned away from the combatants to follow Superstar who was now several paces ahead of the rest of his group. Vamp shrugged at her back and followed, ignoring Stripes who had wrangled out of C3's grip.

"I can't even believe _that_ was me," Stripes spat, beginning to follow but keeping a good distance away from Vamp. "I swear it's like having an evil twin."

C3 matched his pace. "Don't worry about it. On Earth, all the vampires are jerks."

"There are vampires on Earth?" Stripes asked in moderate surprise.

"On TV, anyway"

"On _what?_"

C3 sighed. "Nevermind"

They reached the mouth of the opening to find Superstar stacking up some pieces of dilapidated wooden furniture into the middle of the space. The caved in living room had just enough space for the five Caleb's to sit around the pile of wood but not much more.

"Alright," Superstar began as he shuffled through his coat pockets, "first things first: I need to know what everyone can and can't do. If you can grow an extra head or if you can't face spiders because you were traumatized in the womb, we need to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. C3, you start"

"Me? Why me?" C3 asked as Superstar rummaged elbow deep in one of his clearly enchanted pockets.

"Because my power's the best and I want to be one of the last ones," Superstar said matter-of-factly, switching to another pocket.

"And you're a sap so you can just admit it and move onto me," Vamp added with a disinterested sigh.

C3 rolled his eyes and reluctantly admitted, "All right, I don't have any magical powers. I can fight hand to hand and with a sword as good as the next guy though so don't undermine me"

"Any weaknesses?" Superstar asked as he pulled out a can of tuna from one of the lower pockets in his coat, smelled it to make sure it wasn't old, and tossed it over to Caylee. "Ladies first," he added with the charmer's smile he'd used before. Caylee flipped him off and began to try opening the can with a rock.

C3 scoffed. "I don't have any weaknesses"

"Riiiiiiiight," Superstar said as he pulled another can of something from the same pocket and tossed that one over to Stripes who had to reach out with one hand to grab it. "_Other_ than the lovely Ms. Hale"

C3 colored somewhat but Superstar didn't look up to see it. "Let's pretend we believe Mr. Brave-heart here," he continued. "You go Vamp."

Vamp shrugged. "Standard vampire powers with the exception of the whole 'can't go into the sunlight' part or 'kill with a wooden stake' part"

Stripes muttered something unintelligible to his can before addressing Vamp. "So what _does_ kill you?"

Vamp smirked. "Wouldn't _you_ like to know"

"Go long, Vamp!" Superstar said, pulling out another can and a vial.

Superstar threw the two items full force at one of the walls and faster than anyone could see, Vamp had gotten up, grabbed the can and vial and sat back down calmly in the exact same position.

"Oooh, A-Neg," Vamp mused after sniffing and turning the vial over a few times. "I'd totally be in love with you right now if I was in any way, shape, or form gay."

"I'm sure you are in some universe," Superstar said offhandedly, turning back to sifting. (1)

"Who are _you_ dating that could be a potential weakness?" Stripes asked, glowering at the ease in which Vamp ripped off the tightly sealed can he'd been thrown and dripped some of the blood into it.

"Guardian," was all he replied, being vague on purpose. Superstar had found another can and just as C3 was preparing himself to catch it, Superstar set it aside for himself and continued searching.

C3 sighed and turned into the conversation, "Which one?"

Vamp smirked after tipping some of the bloody tuna into his mouth. "All of them"

C3 looked impressed, Stripes just looked disgusted.

"_Please_ tell me it's because of some crack Vampire rule and not because they actually _like_ you," Caylee entreated as she managed to pry the lid off of her can.

"Well, I did sire all five of them," he mused, "but I prefer to believe it's because I'm the sexiest undead shit in Meridian"

"Just what the realities needed," Stripes muttered still struggling with his can, "blood-thirsty vampire Guardians"

"Hey they aren't so bad," Superstar spoke up, coming to the defense of his friend's universe. "My team helped them work out a system. They're doing all right." Superstar finally managed to procure another can for C3 and tossed it over blindly.

Stripes finally got fed up with opening his can by hand and shot a burst of his magic at it. The lid came flying off but Vamp neatly dodged it and it hit the wall behind him.

"Nice shot," C3 commented. Stripes half smiled and started to eat.

"Big deal," Vamp scoffed, disinterested.

"Natural magic's always a cool power," Superstar said, pulling out a knife to open his own can.

"Can you pull off anything bigger?" Caylee inquired.

"My powers are mainly solar-based so the night doesn't help," he informed his female counterpart. "With the sunlight I can pull off bigger bursts. I can also form crystallized weapons and –"

"Weaknesses?" Vamp interrupted.

Stripes glared. "I'm not telling _you_"

"Lighten up, Stripes," Superstar laughed as he stood up. "You already told us you snagged Elyon"

"I did not 'snag' her," Stripes countered. "She's considering the ethics of dating her Captain of the Royal Guard right now. And what on Meridian are you—"

Superstar's hand had clasped around something invisible where any of the Caleb's would have held a sword and it's sheathe. He yanked and suddenly a well-built fighting sword materialized in his grasp. With the same momentum, he swung it over his head to bring it straight down into the center of the wood pile and shouted, "_Fuoco!"_

The centermost piece caught on fire and spread into a blaze in the same second. The four remaining Calebs jumped back in surprise and Stripes scooted himself all the way back as the space allowed.

"Sorry," Superstar apologized when he realized he'd surprised his teammates. He slid the sword back into it's sheathe and it vanished just as smoothly as it had arrived. "I _was_ going to explain that to you but I just got really hungry"

He pushed his open can right up next to the fire for it to warm.

"So, _are_ you going to explain that?" Caylee asked hotly, obviously not accustomed to be taken by surprise by her heavy breathing.

"Right, right, right," Superstar apologized. "That was _The Sword of the Elements_. I affectionately call it 'Hector' though. The glass and magic of the Heart of Candracar was melted down and mixed with iron to make it in my home universe. Anyone on my team can access it at any time as long as no other member's using it but my Guardians rarely need it since they carry their elemental powers on them. It mostly falls to me."

"Where does it go when no one's using it?" C3 asked, eying were the sword had disappeared.

"Candracar, of course. Its always charging up with energy like the Heart. You just can't carry a sword around your neck"

"You know, I always wondered why 'Hector'," Vamp mused.

Superstar grinned. "First super villain I offed with it"

"And what language was that?" Stripes asked, still up against the wall. He was trying not to show how uncomfortable the fire made him.

"Italian," Superstar shrugged. "No idea why but that's the only that'll work." (2) Across the fire he called, "You're turn Caylee!"

"I'm human," she replied frankly. "I prefer using sai over a sword and I know some Earth and Meridian martial arts."

"Weaknesses?" C3 asked without any hostility.

"Temper," she replied simply, tipping more food into her mouth.

"And boyfriends?" Superstar asked more directly.

Caylee glared. "None"

"None at all?" Superstar pressed, his voice flirtatious.

"I am happily and _gratefully_ single" Caylee replied again, a little more annoyed.

"C'mon, Caylee" Superstar continued teasingly as he retrieved his can from close to the fire, "You have to at least like _somebody_. I mean, the rest of us—"

"Are you implying that I need a boy in my life to be happy? To protect me?" Caylee interrupted with a glare to melt steel. "That I am not perfectly capable of handling myself? In case you forgot, I led a whole damn rebellion _**exactly**_ like all of you supposedly did. I commanded thousands of men who followed all orders without question. Not to mention fought alongside the Guardians and held my own again some of Candracar's greatest foes without _**any **_help whatsoever"

Caylee rose and dropped her can with a clatter. "And I manage to do my boot straps every morning, too" she added sarcastically before she stalked out of the cave and the remaining Calebs watched her go.

"Gee, _Superstar_," Stripes quipped, "that was incredibly smooth"

"Not my fault she's so touchy," he said indifferently.

"I agree," an unrecognized voice echoed from the doorway.

Superstar, Stripes, Vamp and C3 all looked up from their meals and sprung to their feet. At the doorway to the cave was a sixth Caleb, one that wasn't part of their group. He was wearing a royal Meridian robe and his eyes glowed blinding yellow from power.

"However," he continued amicably as he brought his right hand into view, "this might very well be"

He was holding Caylee a foot off the ground by her throat.

She wasn't moving.

* * *

(1) That's for **koolkame** who I'm willing to bet is laughing hysterically at the irony. I'll explain it to the rest of you later.

(2) Die hard fans know that the WITCH comics are Italian. So that's all the sword understands :D

* * *

Lovely clip from next chappie for all of you who are falling in love with the boys (and Caylee) as much as I have: 

_The next thing anyone was aware of, something black and furry hit the Altermere with blinding speed. He faltered, distracted, and dropped Caylee to the floor though he did little more than stumble. The attacker recovered and all heads turned to see an ebony-black wolf snapping and snarling at the new Caleb._

_It had Vamp's violet eyes._


	3. The Altermere

**Stripes and C3 belong to Disney. Vamp, Caylee, and Superstar belong to me. Sort of.**

**Vamp**: Well, we always knew that Stripes and C3 were whipped.

**Stripes** + **C3**: Hey!

**Superstar**: _Bad-dum, cha!_

**Caylee**: Don't make me come over there and sock you!

* * *

"Candracar is going to have my ass," Superstar muttered to himself as his hand began to inch towards his sword out of instinct. To their adversary, he said, "Hey, there! Caleb, right?"

"It depends completely on whose asking," the sixth Caleb replied, in an unnervingly civil voice.

Superstar's hand was almost to the invisible hilt. He heard Vamp let out a low growl from behind him and knew without seeing that C3 would be reaching for his own sword and Stripes would be diverting his magic to somewhere useful.

"Well, I'd love to explain but it might take a little bit," Superstar replied. "You're arm actually might start hurting as we get into the second hour so why don't you just set her down…"

"So _courteous_, aren't we?" the sixth Caleb replied with a smirk as his grip around Caylee's neck visibly tightened.

The next thing anyone was aware of, something black and furry hit the sixth Caleb with blinding speed. He faltered, distracted, and dropped Caylee to the floor though he did little more than stumble. The attacker recovered and all heads turned to see an ebony-black wolf snapping and snarling at the new Caleb.

It had Vamp's violet eyes.

Despite the fact that the attack took all of five seconds, it was all the time the remaining Calebs needed to arm themselves. The Sword of the Elements pulsed a slight pink with the Heart's power in Superstar's hands while C3's sword reflected the clear blue magic swirling like water around Stripes' hands and Vamp prepared himself to leap again.

"Now, now, now," the sixth Caleb chided taking a step over Caylee so that his robe concealed everything but her head and pointed a glowing hand at her, "we don't want to do anything as equally _rude _as your vampiric companion, do we?"

"Relax, Vamp," Superstar told the wolf without taking his eyes off of the sixth Caleb. "You guys too," he added to Stripes and C3 behind him as he lowered his sword to the ground. Stripes and C3 shot each other concerned looks but both knew better than to defy any orders given in the middle of battle and lowered their weapons. Vamp was a little more reluctant but transformed back, the only thing remaining of the wolf's long, shaggy mane shortening into his hair. His eyes stayed the same in both color and intention.

"Perfect," Superstar commended as he casually lent on his sword like it was a walking stick. "So what can we do for you, Caleb? Or do I call you Altermere? Would Mere work for short?"

Mere's eyes narrowed. "What on Meridian are you talking about?"

"Altermere? It's a pretty common term in the Candracar business. Basically it's someone or something that posses Guardian powers that doesn't have the Candracar go-ahead to posses," Superstar explained.

"_Not_ the best time for a lecture on your crazy job," C3 muttered as he and Stripes slowly came forward to flank Superstar on either side.

"Actually, I feel it's the perfect time," Mere replied. "Who are you and how did you manage to make it into Meridian with a Veil as strong as this one?"

"We're you," Superstar supplied, leaning a little more on his sword so that the glow intensified momentarily then softened once more. "Well, we're 'Caleb' technically, from alternate universes. And we're here to help you"

To anyone who didn't have Vamp's vision, it would have merely been another, simply stronger energy pulse from the sword. But Vamp caught the word that appeared on the sword for a split second from behind Mere: DISTRACT.

Mere chuckled as if he'd heard a good joke and it sent shivers up Stripes spine though he couldn't place where the fear came from.

"Whatever gave you the impression I needed help?" he asked, still casually as he shifted his weight so that he was more over Caylee. The other Calebs tensed and Mere's smirk grew more pronounced.

"Oh, don't worry about your little harpy," he assured them, "she's nowhere near dead, yet"

"I know that, _zhotla,_" Vamp said from behind Mere in a contemptuous voice. "I can hear her heartbeat from here"

At the insult, Mere looked over his shoulder to glare at Vamp as the energy in his eyes and hand glowed a little brighter. It was exactly the distraction Superstar was looking for but before he could make any command, Mere jerked and howled in pain, losing his balance and stepping back to reveal a coughing Caylee holding one of her sais, dripping with Mere's blood.

"I (_cough_) I'm not _**anybody's**_ harpy," she managed, rolling on to her side and coughing a little more forcefully.

"_**YOU LITTLE—**_," Mere screeched, clutching at his foot with one hand and powering up the other.

His attention was pulled away from Caylee, however, by C3 who came charging at him, sword raised. Mere stepped down on his injured foot and dodged the blow easily, outstretching his hand to fire at C3's unarmed back. He was forced to withdraw that attack too as Vamp's canine teeth snapped shut on the air where his arm was seconds before. From several yards away, Stripes made a pitching motion and a baseball-sized ball of magic hit Mere in the shoulder as he tried to dodge C3's sword again.

Caylee quickly pushed herself up on her knees, rubbing her neck with her stabbing hand as she removed her other shoe's heel which transformed into her second sai. She got to her feet in perfect time as Superstar plunged Hector into the ground and shouted, "_Terra_!"

The earth rolled and rumbled beneath the combatants and Caylee almost lost her balance again. She watched as Mere dropped to the ground at the same time that Vamp and C3 attacked from either side.

"_Two_ can play that game!" he shouted, gripping the ground. At the same time that the earth reared up in a wave against Superstar, Stripes, and Caylee, vines shot out of the cracks of the earth and grabbed C3 and Vamp right before they collided. Superstar and Caylee kept their footing with their weapons plunged into the ground. Stripes was thrown, however, and once the vines had slammed Vamp and C3 into the ground, both headed for the Murmurer.

"How about a little _fire_, Scarecrow?" Mere snickered, pulling back a hand and forming a fireball as the vines brought Stripes to him.

Stripes paled and choked as he fought against the vines. Mere was just about to toss it when he sensed Vamp's attack coming at him from behind. He spun and threw the mystic fire at the vampire.

The attack hit him full in the face but Vamp barely noticed it. The now flaming wolf collided with Mere again, but this time managed to snap his jaws onto the Altermere's cloak. Vamp would've taken his double to the ground if an energy blast from Hector hadn't jerked him the other way, causing the wolf to lose his grip and rip a piece out of the cloak.

Vamp landed on all fours, flaming and snarling like a demented fire demon, as C3 cut Stripes out of his vine prison and Caylee and Superstar ran up to join them.

"_You,_" Mere hissed at Superstar, looking in between the hole in his stomach and the cause of it, even as the wound glowed and healed in record time. "You _hit_ me"

"You kinda _do _that in _combat_," Caylee informed him, winding up and throwing a sai at him at the same time that Stripes and Superstar shot magic. The two magic attacks hit Mere's shield simultaneously but made no impact and Caylee's sai lodged itself harmlessly in the wall of magic.

"_Fools_! You can't defeat _me!_" he shouted as he plucked the sai out and threw it back at Caylee with a kick of magic. She dodged it even as C3 swung his sword and deflected it.

"I should've squashed the rebellion the _first_ time around!" he snarled, magic pulsing all the way up to his elbows.

The Calebs exchanged looks, Superstar and Vamp particularly. Superstar nodded once at Vamp and at the same moment that Mere drew back to fire, he swung Hector like a golf club with another cry of "_Terra!"_ and a wall of earth rose to block the attack. Vamp bounded out around the side of the make-shift trench to resume an offensive. Caylee and C3 made to scramble out after him but Superstar held them back.

"Hold up! Time out!" he called, grabbing them by their shirts and dragging them back behind the wall. "We need a new strategy now that we know Phobos is running the show"

"What? Phobos is running the show?" Stripes asked, leaning his back to the wall as explosions rocked it from the other side.

"Please, did you hear him?" Superstar told them, rolling his eyes. "There is no _way_ in _**any**_ universe a Caleb would have an ego that big"

"Beg to differ," Caylee replied, fixing her shirt and glowering at Superstar.

"But why is Phobos possessing Caleb?" C3 asked heatedly as he peeked around the wall to keep look out as Vamp kept Mere occupied.

"Well, I don't think it's _intentional_," Superstar explained, wiping some dirt off of Hector with his sleeve. "The Oracle said that the Veil here is extremely reinforced. My guess is that Phobos' soul—"

"—or what he _has_ of a soul," Caylee interrupted, catching on, "_also_ got stuck in the Heart with his powers."

"Cookie for the estrogen," their leader commended with a grin. Caylee sighed and crawled the few feet to where her sai landed to retrieve it.

"But if it _is_ Phobos running the show, we can't kill him," C3 said, then faltered, "Can we?"

"Hmmm…I have an idea," Superstar mused, in a more serious voice. "We need to try and restart him"

"Well, he's not a _robot_ last I checked!"

"No, Stripes, seriously," Superstar said. "Think of the mind like a heart with an irregular pulse, a foreign item. You need to send a shock through it to get it to stop and restart itself correctly."

"Except _none_ of us can shoot lightning or anything close to an electric shock!" Caylee reminded him, returning to the wall.

"Maybe not a _literal_ shock," C3 pondered, catching on to Superstar's idea. "Maybe simply a surprise or a fright big enough to force Phobos to lose his hold of the body for a second so this Caleb can take over. Something like a—"

Vamp appeared suddenly around the wall and growled something at Superstar.

"Vampire bite?" Stripes guessed.

"Or he needs me to douse him._ Acqua!_" Superstar corrected as Hector shot water out at Vamp and quenched the fire. "Either one works"

Vamp's responding growl was deafened by a blow of power that shattered the wall and the group scrambled out from behind it.

"We'll get you close enough!" C3 shouted to Vamp through the kicked up dust as he pulled out his sword again. Caylee twirled her weapons expertly and dangerously as Stripes and Superstar powered up. The black wolf disappeared back into the cloud of dust and an eerie silence fell. No one could see five feet in front of them and Mere was silent.

"Um…someone want to clear this?" Stripes muttered after a few seconds passed.

Superstar decided to take the risk and lifted Hector up the sky.

"_Aria!_"

A whirlwind whipped up and lifted the dust cloud but Mere and Vamp were nowhere to be seen. The Calebs looked around but with the exception of a few more craters in the ground, the landscape looked exactly as it had when they arrived.

"Anyone else want to jinx it by saying something cliché or should I?" Superstar asked jokingly.

The ground erupted from beneath them, then, spewing lava in all directions. Stripes managed a barrier around the four as they hurried to get away from the rising volcano, with Mere rising on top.

"Did you really think you'd seen the last of me?" he cackled.

"Urgh, you're _right,_" Caylee said in disgust. "There's no _way_ I'd quote the Evil-Super-Villain Handbook even if I _was_ crazy-nutso"

If there was any doubt remaining that it was indeed Phobos in charge, the magic was pulsing from Mere so strongly that it was actually dying his hair blonde.

"O—_argh—_kay," Stripes groaned as the lava began to flow faster than the group could retreat and began to rise higher against the barrier. "Plans on fighting a—_urgh—_volcano"

"_Rrrr_—none, really," Superstar replied, adding water magic to the barrier so the lava would solidify on contact. "Just keep him occupied until—_wow_ this is hot—until Vamp makes his move"

Mere threw his hands foreword and the boiling magma oozed around the barrier even faster so that they were surrounded on all sides. Fortunately, Vamp chose this moment to re-appear and faster than any eyes could follow him, he shot up the back of the volcano and leapt at Mere's back, transforming back to a vampire with his teeth bared and ready.

But Mere was waiting for him. Even though he couldn't see him, he felt the magic in the instant that he changed forms and ducked with a fistful of magic ready to catapult him down the volcano to where his teammates were behind the barrier. C3 managed to catch him, though. Sort of.

"_Insects,_ that's what you are to me!" he screamed, cackling with insanity as his magic began affecting the environment and lightning began crashing down from the sky accompanied by large chunks of hail. Stripes switched to protecting their heads as Superstar and Hector tried to keep the oncoming river of lava from coming.

"I _am_ Candracar! I _am_ Meridian! You are _nothing _tome_!_ You are _**dead men!**_" Mere began descending the volcano, the lava solidifying where he stepped forming a manner of stairs.

"I'm already dead, technically" Vamp informed him as he got up off of C3.

"And _I_ am a _wo_man," Caylee corrected hotly, as C3 sat up, rubbing his head.

"More—pressing—_issue!_" Stripes reminded them, having difficulty with the lightning hitting against his overhead barrier.

"_I_ am unstoppable!" Mere declared. "No one _anywhere_, on _any_ world, with _any_ power can do a single—"

But Mere froze in place as if he had run into something and then spoke in a completely different voice.

"_Beg to differ_"

As suddenly as it had all started, the lightning and hail stopped. The entire volcano solidified and shrunk back into the ground as if it had never been there as Mere fell to his hands and knees, trembling and gurgling, muttering inaudibly.

Silent as a cat, Caylee rolled out from behind the barriers and stood up in a semi-crouched position, balancing on the balls of her feet.

"What is she—" Stripes began as he removed his barrier but Superstar shushed him as Caylee began making her way to Mere.

As she got closer, she began to catch snippets of what Mere was muttering to himself.

"—_tell Matt I—dammit! Not dying like—gurgh!—don't do this to me—ragh!—kill them!—Heart of—dirguh!—"_

In a very gentle and soft maternal voice that any member of her team could have sworn she was incapable of, Caylee cooed, "Hey…it's alright. You're alright, Caleb"

Mere jerked violently at the sound of his name and fixed Caylee with a wild stare.

"Oh _God!_" he choked, "Oh _**G-GOD! **They're in my **head**! They're—"_

He howled then, not unlike Vamp would have, and clutched his head in agony.

"It's okay, it's okay," Caylee goaded in the same soothing voice as before. She kept inching closer and closer to him, reaching into the back of her pants as she did to retrieve a sai.

"_Rrrr—help me,"_ Mere pleaded into the ground. "_Help me, plea—what of Peter—juh!—give it up, boy—__**out of my head!!"**_

"You can beat this, Caleb," Caylee promised. "You can beat them"

She was fingering the sai in her hand and calculating where would be the most efficient place to stab him when movement made her look up at Superstar inching around from behind the whimpering Mere, Hector pulsing in his hands.

Just like the Calebs had known without words how to coordinate their offensive and defensive attacks perfectly (even now Caylee knew exactly where her other tense teammates were behind her), Caylee saw the plan written on Superstar's face as clearly as if he had told her outright. She also saw that his way was the better way and that there was no room for compromise, as much as she wanted to final attack to be hers.

She put her sai back and knelt directly in front of Mere, even though her eyes were still watching Superstar.

"—_I __**killed**__ them! I—forget it, don't try to—guh!—love you—__**help**__, God, __**please**__!—"_

"It's okay," she murmured, placing a comforting hand on his exposed back. He jerked at the touch.

"Just hold—"

"_Cuoro—" _Superstar whispered, lifting Hector.

"—perfectly—"

"_di,"_ he had Hector tensely above his head.

"—still"

"_Candracar!"_

Superstar swung Hector down on Mere with full force. Where a physical blow would have cut him in half, Mere screamed as six multi-colored balls of light shot out of his torso.

Immediately releasing _The Sword of the Elements_, which disappeared the second he let go, Superstar slammed down on his C.O.R.E. and shouted, "_NOW!"_

A flash of purple light erupted from the sky over head, signaling the removal of the Veil, and the six lights, as if starved for escape, streaked straight upwards and disappeared from sight as Mere's posture went slack and he fell unconscious.

Vamp, Stripes, and C3 came then, now unarmed, and formed a circle with Superstar and Caylee, now on her feet, around Mere.

"Well," Superstar said brightly, placing his hands on his hips, "that could've been worse!"

Now with Mere taken care of, Caylee's voice regained its cattiness. "I hope you know this is entirely your fault!"

Of all the things Superstar was bracing himself for, blame hadn't been high on his list from Caylee.

"_My_ fault?" he asked incredulously. "Caylee…"

"If you're not going to apologize for being a sexist, self-centered _jerk_ then I'm not interested," Caylee insisted crossing her arms and turning her back on him.

"After all this, _that's_ what she's most upset about!" Superstar sighed in disbelief, turning to his other teammates. C3 and Vamp were snickering and Stripes was trying to look somewhere else but was also smirking. Caylee fixed herself and didn't move.

"Argh, fine! If it makes you feel better, 'I'm a sexist self-centered jerk and I'm _sorry'_"

He grumbled. "Are you happy now?"

Caylee turned back to him and, failing to contain her humor, broke into a playful grin. "What, no roses?"

Seeing Caylee smile for the first time seemed to have an infection quality and Superstar found himself smiling back.

"Put it this way: The only things in my way are a great number of miles to the nearest flower shop and a super-powered red-haired girlfriend"

"You could probably take her," C3 joked, now smiling as well.

"Damn straight," Stripes chimed in, happily. Vamp looked at Stripes with a raised eyebrow and a half smirk on his lips.

"Did goody-two-shoes here just use a swear word?" he asked suggestively.

"I told you that you were a horrible influence," Superstar chided, messing with his C.O.R.E. again.

"Yeah," Stripes added somewhat sheepishly to Vamp, "um…thanks for saving my life out there, by the way"

Vamp shrugged, nonchalantly. "You're on my team"

Stripes raised an eyebrow. "But I treat you like a _phrelic. _And you hate me"

"You're. On. My. Team," he repeated, groaning and rolling his eyes. "Geez, Zebra-Boy, did the explosions knock out your hearing?"

"Shame you're just _smoldering_ now; I would have preferred you extra-crispy!" Stripes shot back.

"Oh boy," C3 muttered, getting ready to intervene just as Superstar finished with his watch and gave it a slow turn.

Like the hologram had appeared in the middle of the table at their first meeting in Candracar, an image of the Oracle appeared on Superstar's watch.

"_Well done, Calebs,"_ the Oracle commended, inclining his head. "_The Candracars are extremely grateful for—"_

"Saving your inter-universal asses?" Caylee supplied, smirking.

"_In much more formal terms, yes_," the Oracle smiled, which made Caylee blush slightly. She swiftly kicked C3 who make the mistake of chuckling out loud.

"_We will send members of the council to retrieve the renegade Caleb. Farewell and thank you once more"_

The Oracle completely disappeared then and Superstar began another rotation sequence on his C.O.R.E.

"Well _that_ doesn't happen every day," Stripes mused.

"Right," Vamp replied impishly, "as opposed to _this," _he indicated Mere at his feet, "which _does"_

Superstar finished up with his C.O.R.E. and addressed his teammates. "All right then! That's that and we're homeward bound. Any last words before we depart?"

The five stood around looking at each other for a couple of awkward seconds without saying anything.

"I think we're good. Um…we don't have to have, like, a group hug, do we?" C3 asked nervously.

"Nah," Superstar grinned, twisting the watch a final round, "save it for next time"

"Next—?"

But Superstar had already pressed his C.O.R.E. and as quickly as they had arrived, the Calebs were elsewhere.

* * *

Holy _gerrlic._

Three years after first publishing something on , I have finally, _finally_, written my first fight scene. I usually shy away from writing fight scenes (and by 'shy away' I mean 'run screaming in the other direction') and it's been a detriment to my writing capabilities but I finally (_finally_**!**) got down to it. Thanks goes to **koolkame** for beta-ing my fight scene and to **Kikyo-Pyroana-Sulane **for…well, _cheerleading_ more than beta-ing but the help was still appreciated.

Oh yeah, and about that 'next time' thing…

Be on the alert for an '_**Everybody Loves Caleb: Adventures**_' story to be posted. The last has not been seen of the boys (and Caylee) as quite a few more inter-universal crisis' remain for them to help fix up including those lovely sets of vampire and boy Guardians as well as Superstar's troublesome set of sisters and—oh, yeah—something about a bartender/Oracle Caleb.

Yeah and Mere's 'Scarecrow' quote is from the Wizard of Oz. Go figure.


End file.
